


Hunger

by ravenously



Category: Until Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: Cannibalism, Gen, Gore, Suicidal Thoughts, Vomiting, Wendigo, mama wendigo taking care of fledgling wendigo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-22
Updated: 2015-10-26
Packaged: 2018-04-27 13:14:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,112
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5049988
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ravenously/pseuds/ravenously
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Josh gives in.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

For the first few days, he was alone.

Scared, his mind ravaged from grief and disorientation, it was mostly spent mumbling to himself. Half lucid- mumbling plans to get out, to get away, to ignore _her_ and leave leave  _leave._ The other half was a mixture of things he didn’t know, a broken mind trying to cope, trying to see more than just the dark and dirty mines that Hannah had left him in.

He wasn’t entirely certain how many of the eerie, crooning embraces Hannah gave him were real. The way she fussed over him like he was a particularly idiotic, squishy child that she had to  _teach_. Josh was almost positive that some of those were in his head. He didn’t know. He didn’t  _know_  anything and that’s what made everything worse. 

Between the accusing voices, the auditory and visual hallucinations, and his own head playing a rapport of sound and overwhelming discomfort and confusion, full blast, at all times… He. There’s really not much he could accurately determine. For such a wild, terrifying and otherworldly set of circumstances, his mind was just about the last one that could ever be equipped to deal with this. 

It was fine, though. It had to be.

After all. He deserved this. He was back with Hannah, and she would do whatever it is she wanted to him. He deserved whatever came to him. 

It was odd, though, that she wouldn’t just  _eat_  him. Josh fully expected to be her prey, a nice fitting meal to fill her empty belly and finish the story. If only. 

But the way she fussed over him, brought him animal skins and always checked on him before she herself slept, it became obvious that- That. That she wasn’t going to kill him. 

If Josh had freaked out before, the moment his mind realized that she wasn’t going to _kill_  him but nurture him in the only way she, a wendigo, knew how, he went batshit. Sobbing and pleading and breaking down at the foot of her nest, asking her to  _please just kill him, Hannah!_ He deserved a lot, he deserved death, and maybe he even deserved to turn into a hopeless monster with no salvation, but he didn’t deserve to inflict pain on others. 

And a wendigo lived only to eat, and ravage, and consume. 

In response to his screaming and crying, Hannah pulled Josh onto her emaciated, disfigured lap and licked the tears away, crooning in a horrible voice and lapping up the blood where her nails cut lightly into the meat of his shoulder.

Josh sobbed and pleaded and tried to ignore the yawning growl of his stomach.

–

Hannah’s tenderness evolved the next day. Instead of merely checking on him, fussing and crooning to him and sometimes licking at his tear-stained cheeks, she brought food back. The first time, it was the carcass of a wolf. She held Josh down and hand-fed him raw meat, growling whenever he tried to scrabble away. 

No mind paid to the fact that his stomach regurgitated it all later. Josh didn’t even eat sushi- let alone raw red meat. He couldn’t help but feel that Hannah was merely preparing him. He sobbed over the puddle of his own mess, and tried to envision himself dying by a swift claw across his throat. 

It was the only thing he could think that didn’t leave him cold with fear.

–

He was talking to the deranged Dr. Hill when Hannah came back dragging a body behind her. It looked half-frozen, like she’d preserved it just for this occasion. Maybe she had. Didn’t want her fucked up brother to have to eat rotten meat the first time. 

She didn’t hold him down. She didn’t force feed him. She just dragged the body in the middle of the cavern. Touched and caressed his cheek, crooning and chittering lightly before she left again. 

For three days.

Well. Maybe. He’s not sure. It had already been days, the hunger and thirst coming in hard. He was dying; he could feel his body already starting to give up from the lack of water. He could just. Sit here and starve to death. That would be preferable. Die before becoming a monster. But he was pretty sure Hannah would force this on him, change him herself if she needed. 

For some reason she wanted  _him_  to be the one to initiate the curse. It would happen, one way or the other, and at least if he just let it  _consume_  him, his agonizing thoughts and fears and-  _everything_  would fall away. 

No more guilt. No more thinking of Sam or Ashley or Emily of  _Chris_. None of them. It would be less painful that way.

It was as thought the mountain itself was punishing him, pushing resolve into his body that he wanted no part of. Even decided, understanding this would  _happen,_ he didn’t move for hours. His body was weak. And then the urges hit. It was more than just the  _hunger_  of his body. It was like a mental hunger. The curse, maybe. 

He didn’t know. There were too many voices screaming at him to do it, do it, just becoming the monster you  _are,_ you freak. Hannah’s own  _human_  voice whispering _you owe me, you owe me_. 

He was so hungry.

–

His thoughts are slow and muddy, focused inward as it examines new teeth with his tongue, whining briefly at the pain of recently-shredded skin. It doesn’t mind the pain; he knows it means he’s getting  _better_. 

Hannah fed him tonight, crooning softly the entire time she pushed prey into his mouth, licking under his eyes whenever he took the meal with a happy whine of his own. Its eyes still leak tears. He- it knows- He can remember why, and feel those emotions, but they’re so soft, background noise and nothing more.

Easier to think about the important things. Prey. Safety. Hunger  _hungerhungerhunger_. It’s always hungry now. Maybe more than before, when it was squishy and wholly human.  _Prey._

But his stomach is full tonight, warm and content and it can feel the soft, insidious glow of something moving about within him, spreading through his blood and limbs. Must be the Gift from the forest. Making him better. More. A  _predator_. 

It doesn’t mind that he’s laid up for four hours screaming in pain as new teeth tear through its gums and lips. They’re sharp. Will help with killing and eating and quenching the hunger. Pain doesn’t matter, and Hannah licks his tears away, anyways.

His mind has never been this quiet. Even when he was  _good_  like the doctors told him to be. Now it’s soft and muddled and full of  _content_  and  _hunger._ Two polar opposites. So easy. Nothing more, nothing less, and soon,  _soon_  he’ll be Whole, perfect.

He smiles a jagged a smile when Hannah takes pity on his aching jaw and offers him another sliver of meat.


	2. II

He’s hunting. Hannah’s been letting him leave, hunt, do his own thing for a week now, occasionally tracking him down to be assured that he’s eating, that he’s not just starving himself for the sake of death.

She was pissed at him, earlier, when she found him eating a deer carcass. It had taken quite a lot of whining and neck-baring to get her to understand that even if he’s not eating the  _right_  meat, he still needs to fucking eat. Not starve. There isn’t an abundance of people that come up to the mountain. Not anymore. Not weeks after it all happened. 

He hasn’t eaten in a couple days. His head is woozy, strange voices in the back of his mind  _still_  yelling at him. It’s easier to just ignore the voices now, to shut them up with a well-placed growl and a snap of his teeth. Human voices have no hold over him. 

Except when the voices are tied to his slowly fading memories. He found a cabin today, and was hit with a punch of guilt. It’s- It’s so confusing, whenever human emotions collide with what he Wants to be, and he usually opts to ignore the former. Maybe he’s too hungry, though, so he followed the paths and found the lodge. 

The lodge that immediately fills him with dread and fear and anguish, so powerful that he’s rendered useless for an hour of shaking and sobbing and growling at voices that hiss about him being monstrous, horrible, disgusting. 

The only thing that pulls his head from spiraling lower and lower is a smell. Not a deer, not a- Not anything in the forest. Living, though, and it smells so… So good. Josh pushes himself up from the ground immediately and sniffs the air, running his tongue over his still-growing teeth. 

 

All the nasty little thoughts and stupid emotions that were overwhelming him fall away as his new instincts kick in, the desire to eat, and maim and not be so  _hungry_  much stronger than anything else. 

A living person. He hasn’t had that yet. Hannah has been bringing corpses to him, but he hasn’t had the chance to kill for himself yet. He wants to. Wants to be protective of his own prey and huddle near it while he eats, has enough food for a  _week_ , two weeks.

He makes a hungry moan and turns down a path he instinctively knows will bring him to tunnels. Hannah showed him the quickest routes a while ago, and he already- He has the mountain practically memorized, from when he was weak and prey. 

Josh tracks his prey slowly, taking the time to relish in the scent of fresh flesh, his body occasionally swaying in time with the faint heart beat that he can already hear. The closer he gets, the more- The stronger the scent resonates within him, like it’s familiar. It’s something he needs-

 _Food_?  _Friend?_  

He doesn’t know. He can eventually see the back of the prey’s body, and it looks so familiar, so… He- He must  _know_  this person, this human, this  _friend_  but- 

It’s just prey. That’s all it is, and all prey looks alike. Slow and bumbling and weak, so weak compared to Hannah, or even him, something half-finished and incomplete. He tastes the air and stops, lets the prey keep walking. He wants to stay here. He wants to run into the man’s arms. He wants to bite out the prey’s throat and lick the trails of blood that it leaves behind. 

He needs to clear the mud in his head. The mud is normally welcome, a soft dulling of the world around him, reducing it all into  _food_  and  _safety_  and various instincts the transformation is instilling in him, but it’s- He wants to actually  _think_  right now. It’s hard to, with so many feedback loops and responses hitting his senses. 

Josh doesn’t know what to do, and then the man  _trips_. Trips and sends his instincts into overdrive as he leaps forward, a blur as he runs and climbs to stand a foot behind the prey, breathing in the smell of flesh and blood and  _meat_  and  _organs_  and everything is fresh… So fresh it’ll still be warm running into his belly. 

The prey is scooped up into his arms immediately, twisted for a good rip to the throat, but- Something. He can’t-

The prey’s face is familiar. He knows this man, and he doesn’t want to consume. Hannah would screech at him if she were around, would screech and take the prey for herself and then punish Josh for not listening to her rules. 

His claws dig into the man’s body, just tight enough to start slipping through the fabric. Josh should eat, should be happy but… He can’t, he  _can’t_  and-

And the prey is staring up at him in shock, grief and fear and a myriad of emotions that the more basal sides of Josh’s mind can’t comprehend plain as day on his face. “ _Josh?”_ The prey asks, in a voice he  _knows,_ using a name Josh knows is only in his head now and-

And this is. He knows- He pushes his hunger away and truly  _looks_  at this man, gauges the face and the shape and the- Everything in his head and- “Chris.” That’s the prey’s name. It must be. He remembers now, and Chris is important, very important, is not  _prey_  can’t be prey. He’s to be safe and sound and Josh can’t  _eat_ him. 

The voices in his head hiss that he’s sick and disgusting for even thinking about it _,_ but he ignores them, continues to focus on Chris. 

He won’t eat this man.

**Author's Note:**

> Come find me on [Tumblr.](buckycurtis.tumblr.com)


End file.
